A few months back I purchased a S&W MP 15 Sport NJ compliant carbine for myself. At 71 years of age, I am no young pup and am a very experienced shooter but am new to the AR platform.

I recently ordered an aluminum aftermarket picatinny rail for the bottom of the factory handguard and yesterday I installed it. The three holes in the rail didn't exactly line up with the holes in the handguard, but it is amazing what a rat tail file can do. I then attached a Magpul Vertical Grip and it really makes the rifle come up to my shoulder much better.

I am now noticing something that I did not notice before installing the rail and vertical foregrip. There appears to be a tiny amount of play in the handguard if it is twisted from 1 o'clock to 11 o'clock. When I say tiny, I mean TINY but it is a bit annoying.

I am wondering if there is a good after market handguard, that I can install on my rifled that will not wobble. Maybe somehow locked down by some sort of screws. Maximum price up to $100.

Or, might I have a weak spring in the Delta ring?

Or, should I just forget about it?

Hope someone can help me out?

Thanks in advance.

I would just forget about it... perfectly normal. Your vertical grip is acting as a lever and making the handguard move with less force... physics.

Only way to get around this would be to purchase a free float rail that mounts into a properly torqued barrel nut to lock up.

Wow, that was quick. Thanks for the info.

XPD,
If I may ask, which aluminum picatinny rail did you get?
I may consider it in my quest to mount a bi pod on my Sport.
Jim

GG&G Under Forearm Integrated Mounting Rail GGG-1055. As I said though, took a bit of work to mount it properly as the holes of the rail were not quite inline with the hand guard. It is nice and snug though and holds my vertical fore grip snugly. Good enough for this old guy. I'm not shipping out to SW Asia any time soon.

If you just want to mount a bipod but would like to keep the standard hand guard, this is a tidy option. Fits on the bayonette lug.

Thanks XPD. The filing wont bother me, I hope.
Arnoob, thanks for the tip.
Jim

Go with a Magpul MOE or SL hand guard. Your local stores should have these and are high quality, light weight, come in colors and reasonable priced. Many sport owners, including myself, swap out the hand guards because the originals are cheap and do not have an integrated heat shield. The Magpul ones mentioned do. You'll notice a warm hand guard after a day at the range. It's not a must but worth consideration. Mine also fit like a glove with no wobble (I don't have a vg installed though). I'm not sure if the rail section you already bought would fit but it likely would with modification.

The hand guard is an easy install with two people. Difficult with one depending on your grip strength. There is also a tool that can be bought to hold back the delta ring for this purpose but isn't worth the purchase if you're only gonna do it once.

https://www.magpul.com/products/hand-guards

You'll need a carbine length hand guard. I'd go ahead and get a new rail section as I think all of their products use their mlok mounting system. If you want to know what it will look like mounted, there is a fairly recent thread entitled "New Sport II" with an MOE installed with VFG (last photo posted at the bottom of the thread).

Understand, all drop in hand guards are going to move. Especially if you add a lever like a vertical hand grip. This is normal and there is nothing wrong with your gun or hand guard.

The only way to fix this is to install a free float hand guard. Those are super stable and will not move if installed properly.

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

I have to respectfully disagree. The SL and vertical grip on my mid-moe is rock solid. It doesn't even creak under pressure. Maybe I got lucky.

Like what was said most drop in handguards will have some wobble to them. I don't know if you care to have a quad rail, but you might look at the Daniel Defense EZ Car drop in rail.

I have a Daniel Defense EZ Car drop in quad rail handguard on one of my AR 15's that has virtually no wobble as it has four tiny set screws that tighten the handguard to the barrel nut which stabilizes the handguard and eliminates the movement. The downside to this is that it is going to be well over $100 unless you find a used one somewhere. Additionally, it appears that this rail is discontinued so that would leave something like the DD Omega rail if you preferred to do no permanent modifications to your rifle.

Midwest Industries has some drop ins but their fit will vary from rife to rifle as they have no set screws. There are also the models from Troy Industries whcih have set screws, but I have no hands on experience with them, and once again they will be over $100. Any of the sub $100 drop ins that I have handled tend to be much heavier than the Daniel Defense, Midwest Industries, or Troy models.

I would say you got lucky. I'd like to see it. Got any pics?

The reason I said that is due to the nature of the drop in hand guards. There has to be some tolerance allowed for them to fit in every gun. Unless they have some kind of locking system, they'll move. Even if it's only a little.

__________________
Freedom isn't free.

My Knights Armament is rock solid. Honestly, I don't remember if it had a locking screw or screws, I installed it over 2 years ago. I will say however that it is very solid, but did cost a little more than $100.

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Still carrying my S&W 642

If you're gonna spend 100 bucks on a drop-in you could get a really nice free float M-LOK from ALG Defense (designed by Geissele) instead.

Ergonomic Modular Rail (EMR) V1 M-LOK

I can push and pull on this thing from every direction and I cannot detect any movement. Let me know if there is a close-up of any part you'd like to see. The stock is another story, wobble city.

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